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What Do You Do To Keep Your Agents Motivated? 

During the early part of the roaring 2000s our office was a selling machine.  Of course, most offices were like that, but when the market began to slide into recession things slowed down.  Our broker, who was a great guy, was managing two offices.  He spent the majority of his time at the other office in a large metropolitan city (approximately 29 out of 30 days).  As the recession became more and more severe our office began to drop sales and agents.

The worse things got with the economy the worse sales got with the office.  Our broker was seldom around to encourage and inspire the office, and the agents found little enthusiasm and motivation to overcome the economic struggle the country was entering into.  Finally, a year ago that office closed.  It really was the right thing to do.  Most agents were doing little to nothing by that time.  In our former broker's defense a dozen or more offices have closed in the area.  So, it wasn't specific to our location.

There were a few of us who were highly self-motivated who simply moved on.  I actually joined that company because I was very self-motivated, and I didn't need the broker looking over my shoulder all the time.  I also didn't need weekly pep rallies to keep listing and selling homes.  I love the job.  When the office closed I started my own company and it's doing well, but my questions for you are,

"What do you, or what does your office do during hard times to keep your agents motivated and on track?  What keeps the agents excited when it becomes a real challenge to succeed in their profession?  How do you deal with the agents who need that extra boost to stay steady during slow time?"

I have been hearing more and more objections from my buyers about purchasing a home TODAY because they keep hearing that the market is going to decline further, so they don't want to be in a negative equity situation. In addition, they have heard that there is going to be a "mad rush" of foreclosure properties soon, so maybe they should wait...

I wanted to start this discussion in hopes that we can all help each other handle this objection so we can all be more successful!

I have been handling it this way; Well, Mr. Buyer that may happen, however, even if you waited to purchase a home that was 5% lower in price, you may end up paying more if the interest rates increase. They are bound to increase in the near future, so do you want to take that chance?

Just some thoughts and I would love to hear your opinions...

I woke up this morning and started looking over all of my favorite business news websites and I saw that the headlines for today was something like…..,

“Economic Growth at a Standstill, Revised Government reports 2^nd Quarter Growth Down Sharply”

I get asked often, “who is your business” because, people want to know, is housing recovering. My reply to this question is normally,

“The worse the economy gets, the better my business. I am Bentley shopping have you seen the new Bentley Continental GT?”

Everyone laughs in nervous anticipation thinking I was joking and that any minute now I am going to say something to diffuse the un-comfortableness floating in the air like a lead balloon but, I don’t. My point with my reply is, the economy isn’t growing, it’s not even set to grow. In fact, the economy is actually set to fail and fail big. People are amazed or even combatively when I say these things, it’s almost as if they are walking around in a drug educed stupor with the thought bubble floating over their head that reads something like,

“YES, WE CAN” or “HOPE” and even better, “CHANGE”

The economy reminds me of that scene in the movie Constantine where Keanu Reeve’s character “John Constantine” has a face to face encounter with the angel Gabriel who want’s to make the human race earn the love of God by hastening the coming of Satan’s son. Gabriel explains her madness by elaborating that the human races is capable of such incredible triumphs but, through her years of observing us, she realizes that we only change when we are on the event horizon of total destruction or despair. She goes on further to say, she will bring further our destructions so that we can rise to the occasion and be found worthy of God’s love and grace.

Yes, it’s a sick, crazy understanding of human nature but, what could we ever expect from a being (an angel) who has felt as a 2^nd class race for eternity? You need to understand the concept from Gabriel’s point of view. She knows, God has put her and her race as 2^nd, in behind humans which in her eyes have done nothing but, thrown Gods incredible grace back in his face whereas, she and the other angels have served and will serve for eternity without such love or forgiveness.

In many ways, this battle that Gabriel struggles with, in the movie, is suppose to be a reflection of the concept of communal grace or collective salvation and manifest destiny.

In other words, Gabriel can’t be saved from these wretched horrible, less than desirable position behind humans unless everyone can be saved and she believes it’s God’s will and that she is doing God’s work and come hell or high water, she is going to make it happen.

Now, let me ask you, do you believe this theology could be present in our current Government leadership?

Yeah, I know….the movie analogy is a bit fanciful and maybe a bit ridiculous but, it’s a good analogy none the less.

Is it possible that our Government is being lead to bring forth fundamental change in the way of transforming our country into a socialist utopia where Government knows best. Is it possible that some in our Government feel it’s their destiny to make these changes and they are doing a good work by following what they believe is God’s will for their lives? Is it possible that some in our Government are working towards this transformation by creating a environment of total destruction so that they can rise up as our saviors and cleanse us of this evil capitalism that we suffer from?

Here is what I know. I know that Franklin Roosevelt announced in a radio program that he believed in a 2^nd Bill of Rights, of which, this administration has succeeded in accomplishing a few of those items.

The specific right I want to focus on is “The right of every family to a decent home.”

2^nd Bill of Right # 2: The right of every family to a decent home;

Once again, the politicians realized you can’t just give people a home but, you can collapse the housing industry and everyone who has a home and paying a mortgage can keep their homes regardless if they pay or not because, the government can raise taxes, create bailouts or take over banks and simply cancel out the homeowner’s debt at the expensive of the tax payer.

Let’s be clear, the Progressive agenda to move away from our constitution or to transform our constitution has been in the works for a long time. With the Progressive control of the White House and both houses of Government, we are simply seeing a fast forwarding of their agenda.

Make no mistake, you can’t have a housing recovery without jobs and from my point of view, this Government hasn’t done anything to increase jobs. In my opinion, they have done what they can to kill jobs and that leaves me with a question…………..why.

The next time your asked about your business, the next time someone ask you when you think we will recover from this economic crisis I hope you remember this blog, I hope you ask yourself do you really know what is happening in our Government that will forever impact our industry and how we do business.

This isn’t a Republican vs. Democrat argument, this is a Constitution vs. Progressive argument of which, both go to the core beliefs that you may have about this divinely inspired country.